Venezia!

I went to Venice this weekend for Carnevale. It was quite an experience. I will start with our flight. First, we had to wake up at 4:00am to get a taxi to the airport (there were 10 of us going together). We got to the airport really early and waited in line for a little while for our boarding passes. After that, we went through security that allowed me to keep on my jacket and everything. Since we only went for two nights, I didn't need to pack much, and thus didn't have to check a bag. Okay so after security we got some breakfast and waited in line for boarding. With the airline we took, RyanAir (and insanely cheap European airline), there are no assigned seats and overhead space is limited to first-come, first-serve...so waiting in line was necessary. 

We left from Ciampino, the smaller airport in Rome, and were to arrive at Treviso outside of Venice. The flight was fine (despite the seats that didn't recline) and was only an hour long. Near the end of the flight the captain tells us that due to excessive fog at Treviso, they needed to land at another airport! We arrive and cannot figure out what to do...because we had planned transportation from Treviso...then RyanAir tells us they are providing a bus to Treviso (I would say like an hour or more away). So we wait and I lay down in the random airport. When I put my head up, I see everyone from my flight walking out the doors, so I run out too. It turns out my roommate Steph had wanted fresh air, but everyone assumed the buses were there, so she caused a stampede! I thought that was amusing (despite the situation)!

The buses finally arrive, we finally get to Treviso and take another hour-long bus ride to Mestre, the town of our hostel (across the bridge from Venice). Our hostel turns out to be a nice, hotel-type place. I was relieved. Julie, Rachel and I took naps in our room while the other girls went to explore Venice.

After the nap, we got up and headed to Venice, which was a very short bus ride away. We headed to Piazza di San Marco (where all the pigeons are) to see the festivities. There were a ton of people everywhere and it was cold, but not raining! There was a giant stage set up where music was being performed. We headed towards the middle of the crowd, but ran into an American couple on the way. It turns out they are actors....the wife and husband are both voices for characters on The Simpsons! That was so weird! So we talked to them for a while (they live in Colorado now to raise their daughter blahblahblah) and took some pictures. The show ended while we were talking, so we had to go find something else to do. The thing about Venice is that, apparently even during Carnevale, it shuts down at about 11 pm. So we walked around and eventually found a band playing in a small piazza. After the show we took a water shuttle to Piazza di Roma, the main bus port, and headed back to the hostel. 

Check out was at 11 am, so we got up early and headed into Venice with our backpacks (we had only booked for one night, despite us planning on staying in Venice for two). Soo it was a cold, rainy day, but we were able to see a lot of cool things. Again, a lot of people and a ton of umbrellas, but Venice is a cool city, so that outweighed the unfortunate weather. We walked side streets attempting to return to Piazza di San Marco. On our way, we passed over many cool canals and many cool, old buildings (check out the pictures). We also took a gondola ride! Despite the fact that it was cold and rainy, we all felt that is what we had to do. By this point (and all of the previous day) I was only walking around with 4 other girls, so we weren't in a huge group. My friend Alison speaks very good Italian and haggled down the gondola price. It was so cool to see the city from that point of view. There were so my stairways going right into the water, you could see the lines from water damage on buildings and doors, and it was just overall cool to see a city that has waterways instead of roads!

After the ride, we made it to San Marco's, which was PACKED. We stood in a long line to go in the beautiful cathedral. It was hard to truly appreciate everything because of all the people and clutter, but the inside of the cathedral and the buildings in the piazza spoke for themselves. I would love to go back when it is less crowded and there is nicer weather.

My friends bought masks and we had dinner and then headed back to the buses. We decided that since Venice shuts down so early and we had an entire night of homelessness ahead of us, it would be best to just go back to the airport and camp out. So all 10 of us head back to the airport at about 7:30 pm to wait for our 8am flight! That was quite the experience! 

The heat was turned off after a while, but I was still able to get some sleep in. I'm glad we chose the airport over freezing Venice, but I would have rather had a bed! Okay so we all played games, entertained ourselves, and then finally tried to go to sleep. The airport opened at 6am, so we got up and through security and finally on the plane back to Rome. By this point, I was so exhausted it was ridiculous. I had gotten an insanely low amount of sleep that weekend!

Our flight back went smoothly. 5 of us took a bus and then metro back to the Residence to save money (opposed to taking a cab). I got back to the apartment at around 11:30am and passed out right away. I didn't wake up until 7pm! At that point, my roommates were talking about going out to watch the SuperBowl. I knew I didn't want to go out, so Julie came over with this special program on her laptop that allows you to watch TV. 

We didn't watch much of the game because we were both really tired again, so I went to bed. It turns out my roommates didn't get back from the game until 5am! Steph is from Boston, and thus a huge Patriots fan...so that was not a good end to her weekend!

I had a great time in Venice, and I am very excited to return at some point in my life to get an even better feeling of the city.

Okay, I'm really tired. I will post about classes and weekdays and such later. And I am going to Prague this weekend, so there will be a post on that too. 

My pictures have been updated and captioned, so check that out!